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A Look Back at Ancient Roman Water Fountains

Posted by Doug Gardner
on
July 22, 2014

The Ancient Roman empire is credited with pioneering the use of complex
aqueducts and irrigation canals to create elaborate water fountains.
While water fountains have been around long before the Romans, they were
responsible for creating some of the first examples of elegant
fountains integrated into stone statues and sculptures. In this post,
we’re going to take a look back at the Ancient Roman empire and how they
paved the way for modern water fountains.

According to Encarta,
the Ancient Romans received some 38 million gallons of water through
their elaborate aqueduct system. There were no special pumping
mechanisms required for the system because gravity was pulling it from
the nearby hills and mountains. Once the pipes were connected to the
appropriate water source, gravity guided it down and towards the city,
where it was then supplied to various fountains, homes, palaces and
buildings.

Each Ancient Roman water fountain was connected to two different water-supplied
pipes. If one pipe was damaged, lost its water source, or otherwise
stopped working, the remaining pipe would supply water to the fountain.
This turned out to be a highly effective fail-safe mechanism for keeping
the city’s water fountains up and running.

One of the engineering marvels of the Ancient Roman empire was their
use of a water-supply plumbing system, feeding water to residents
throughout the city. Below the bustling city streets lied networks of
lead pipes. These pipes fed water to fountains placed on intersections
and street corners, as well as residential homes and palaces throughout
the city. Historians discovered the pipe-fed fountains when excavating
the site of Pompeii, where Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, preserving
the city and its contents for centuries to come.

During the excavations at Pompeii, historians and archaeologists also
discovered ornate water fountains set up inside the courtyards and atriums of
wealthy homeowners. These weren’t your typical “bowl” fountains that
were seen by previously civilizations. Instead, the Ancient Romans
invented brilliant, highly detailed fountains embedded in stone statues.

Of course, there was a good reason why so many people referred to
Rome as “the city of fountains.” Sextus Julius Frontinus, Rome’s
appointed water guardian, stated that the city had 39 “monumental
fountains” and 591 public basins. These numbers do not include private
residential fountains and bathhouses.